Still praises his side’s approach against Boro

Mike Simmonds

Hatters boss John Still was delighted with his side’s approach during their final League Two clash of the season against Stevenage yesterday.

Town had gone into the game needing a victory plus a highly unlikely eight goal swing in their favour to leapfrog Plymouth.

“It was a pleasing way to end a season that was going to end in disappointment in the right manner.”

John Still

However, with Argyle soon ahead at Shrewsbury and leading 2-0 by half time, Luton’s slim chances quickly evaporated.

Speaking afterwards, Still said: “I was really pleased, I thought we approached the game in the right way.

“It was a funny game, before the game, you say to yourself, ‘if we do, if they don’t’, and we just said, all we can do is go and play the game and how it will be is how it will be.

“If we need to change and try and do something we can do it, but we started on fire and throughout the game we just had the ascendancy.

“We knew the result from the other game, knew how that was going, so we just played the game and I was delighted with the response.

“We played well, our energy was very high, we won the ball back early lots of times, and it was a pleasing way to end a season that was going to end in disappointment in the right manner.”

Town looked refreshingly positive throughout the contest from the moment Mark Cullen put them ahead in the opening five minutes.

When asked if he was disappointed such a performance hadn’t been on display recently, Still continued: “It’s really weird, I thought we played better against Burton, and lost, that’s my honest opinion.

“I don’t think we deserved to lose last weekend at Southend too, I don’t. So our performance, we had that really poor patch, but gradually we got our back four back in together, managed to get some games into (Nathan) Doyle and (Jonathan) Smith and since then I think we’ve played well, I’m sure not everyone will think the same, but I do.”

With their play-off berth assured, Stevenage boss Graham Westley made a hefty eight changes to their side, as Still added: “I wasn’t surprised, but when you talk about changes, I can point at not having a fit Luke Guttridge, an Alex Lawless, Pelly Ruddock and Paul Benson and that’s just how it is.

“Graham decided he would change some, but he’s brought in (Harry) Worley and (Jon) Ashton that are experienced players.